The world's largest online auction house eBay has been ripped off with a local version on www.ebay.ae which features similiar features, even a surprisingly similiar looking logo and using (or shall I say abusing) the same name, same site structure, same design and so on. A shame for the creativity and growth of the region's online industry - that the owners of www.ebay.ae could not come up with something unique. The logo is a complete copy of what eBay did internationally and - without being a lawyer - an infringement of copyrights that obviously are not taken seriously in the Middle East:
eBay International logo:
eBay UAE ripped off logo:
When eBay.com was contacted this morning through their interactive chat on their website, they confirmed that the UAE site has nothing to do with eBay.com and legal action might be pursued:
11:40:45 AM Mylene T. Please give me a moment to look into this for you. 11:48:26 AM Mylene T.Thank you for waiting. I appreciate your patience. 11:48:58 AM Mylene T. I was able to check the web site and I can verify that it is not a legitimate eBay web site. 11:49:07 AM Mylene T. Thank you for reporting it to us. 11:49:31 AM Mylene T. I really appreciate your time for reporting it to us. 11:51:34 AM Mylene T. I assure you that we will be doing some actions regarding this matter.
eBay UAE even posted a print ad in local UAE newspaper 7DAYS: 
It would be interesting from a legal point of view if the UAE version can sustain it's image and commercial operations. From a user point of view, I personally find it a very poor offering to mislead local and regional consumers and hope that people come up with more creative ideas than just copying others' successes. Martin
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Flip Blog Spot » Blog Archive » eBay ripped off by local UAE ......
Zudku2005 December 22, 2006 at 03:10 am
So Baig, you think anyone launching www.microsoft.ae or www.oracle.ae or www.pizzahut.ae will be fine?
Where are you coming from dude? You have no fragging idea what your talking about.
It doesnt matter what currency anyone charges on their website. You cannot use a copyright/intellectual property from another company and expect to get away with it. Its cheap, its lame, and whoever does this (there are a lot of companies and individuals in the UAE) are born losers.
Sure you can have an online business as same as anyone else, but please have the decency to have a unique brand and logo. Business models are not intellectual property in ANY country. But logos, colours, Id's, slogans and taglines ARE.
For a good measure of how one can actually successfully launch a business like this, please take a look at www.souq.com. They are known as the eBay of UAE, and for good measure.
Nivine December 27, 2006 at 06:23 pm
hi all,
i would liek to have any contact details fro ebay.com and ebay.ae
so plz, anyone can help
Baig July 25, 2006 at 05:59 pm
ebay.ae is correct because he is using AED not USD make notice of all part before making any eyes on any one... ebay.com is not the only one can do business in world, every one can do his business, i can say ebay,.ae is right upto his part
Kichu July 5, 2006 at 01:31 pm
Domain name [ ebay.ae] = USD 4.00
500 MB webhosting = USD 60.00
Ebay clone website script = USD 420.00
Total capital required to relaunch eBay Inc in Dubai: USD 484.00
.................................................................................................
Request:
I want to open a new microsoft, please someone from dubai, send me your quotation...
Thanks
Angelo June 23, 2006 at 10:46 am
Well I'm sure Bahrain will get the ip law figured out fine.. I just hope we don't have any more ridiculous calls (which never worked anyways) to register our blogs and websites in the future...like we've seen in the past... :D
PJ June 21, 2006 at 06:30 am
Ha! :-D Hope this acts as a catalyst for a proper internet law....not sure who'd take the initiative though. As for Bahrain, the Bahrain Internet Society along with the Ecommerce directorate (Ministry of Commerce) is actively pursuing this. Inshallah, in the next year or so, especially with the http://www.e.gov.bh/ we should have a pioneer as far as E-Laws are concerned!
Roanldo Mouchawar June 20, 2006 at 11:41 am
From my personal experience in Ecommerce in the Middle East copying a website without revising the model would not work....
There are many variations in the way people shop and expect to shop online in the region; any successful website would need to tailor, revise and even change the services.
What worked for souq.com is what is not available on ebay and not the opposite.
Martin Diessner June 16, 2006 at 10:14 am
Agree dotone - in fact I contacted eBay.com about 4 years ago but they never got back to me - obviously Middle East too small for them to license them as ASP model.
Anyways - as you say, it's just another rip-off that is not too surprising - this region (wtihout any proper legal framework) obviously encourages people to do that.
Dotone June 16, 2006 at 06:11 am
We've had enough of rip-offs already so this wasn't such a breaking news to me. I still don't get it. It ain't about a website, it ain't about the domain name, it's about the business model down there. Instead, why don't they try to get some partnership with eBay and get the region out of credit-card-usage-fear since they can efford it?
This still indicates a sad thing to me which is: a website is a website, not that a website is a business/brand interface online or the business itself--again it's one of those uninformed shots by disconnected people.
While this is an application of a service while ripping-off the whole identity there are 1000s of services and websites that do that but under a different umbrella/brand in Dubai.
Saif June 15, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Funniest part is they have put 'Copyright' after a straight lift !!
"Copyright © 2006 ebay.ae"
Ashwin June 15, 2006 at 12:00 pm
Even more surprising is how 7days accepted the ad without even bothering to check. If this was indeed a genuine ebay site, it would have been a great breaking story for them. But sadly there doesn't seem to be much coordination between the editorial and advertising departments at 7days judging by this. On a separate note, wouldn't it be better if newspapers stopped accepting ads for "fake brands" ? After are all they are inadvertently helping piracy by running such ads. Maybe the newly formed "Brand Owners Protection Group" could push them to do it.
Angelo June 15, 2006 at 11:44 am
:D archive.org had this to say about them.. apparently the site's been around since 2002 and shut down in 2003:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://ebay.ae/
http://web.archive.org/web/20020927015907/http://www.ebay.ae/
hope you folks have fun with the uae version of ebay :D
Angelo June 15, 2006 at 11:39 am
most likely to be someone from GOLDBIZ DMCC at Jumairah Lake Towers :D
Angelo June 15, 2006 at 11:33 am
have a look as to ownership info for ebay.ae:
http://dnsstuff.com:8080/tools/whois.ch?ip=ebay.ae
someone from the govt' maybe ;)
Martin Diessner June 15, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Interesting - thx Angelo:
domain: ebay.ae
descr: Ebay Portal
descr: DUBAI
descr: P.O.Box 118220
descr: DUBAI
descr: United Arab Emirates
admin-c: AM545-UAENIC
tech-c: AM545-UAENIC
zone-c: AM545-UAENIC
nserver: ns1.dns77.com ns2.dns77.com
changed: **********@nic.ae 20060511
source: UAENIC
person: Akram Mehmood
address: DUBAI
address: P.O.Box118220
address: DUBAI
address: United Arab Emirates
phone: +0097143517286
phone: +00971504628439
fax-no: +0097143517284
e-mail: *****@goldbiz.com
nic-hdl: AM545-UAENIC
changed: **********@nic.ae 20060511
source: UAENIC
Klaus June 15, 2006 at 09:37 am
They are certainly not very keen on providing their actual contact details on their site nor are they making any effort at all to make it clear to the user that this is not the eBay they may think it is.